ambassador and nbc news middle east diplomacy analyst dennis ross. it's a tough monday here today, dennis, bear with me. so first of all, the red line. the president said it several times. was that a mistake, to establish a red line you're not prepared to liver odeliver on? >> i don't think once you establish you're outlining a red line, by definition you're prepared to do something about it there's a history with red lines. whenever you establish a red line, understand it has two different dimensions to it. one is you're implying that anything short of it won't trigger action by you, but you're also saying if that's crossed, you will absolutely do something. so i do think the president is in a position where he has to find a way to cross the threshold now because even if we can't corroborate specifically exactly what's been done by the syrians, we're saying that we have varying degrees of confidence that they've used chemical weapons. so that does cross the red line. >> they seem to be really very carefully, though, falling all over themselves, if y